I won second prize in the half time
raffle. Faced with a choice of a CD by the main act or some chocolates I’m
afraid to say that my sweet tooth succumbed. If the draw had been at the end
of the gig however I would have plumped for the album for this was something of a show of two halves…
Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick
have played together on and off for over 40 years. Genuine folk legends, I last
saw them live almost 20 years ago since when Carthy has changed remarkably little in appearance whereas Swarb is now sadly
rather frail though thankfully recovered from several years of very ill health. Quite
gruff now too and in many ways the opposite in personality of his performing partner.
After a quick bow of strings, Dave spluttered, “right let’s get on with it then” only to be politely
admonished by the perfectionist Martin who was still fine twiddling his tuning pegs.
For the first couple of songs, it
seemed that Dave Swarbrick’s recent ill health had sadly also affected his playing though he gradually improved and
was on stunning form by the end of the evening. Dave let the bum notes go as
he fiddled away unlike his partner who visibly winced or even stopped playing when he made a minor mistake. Don’t worry about it Martin – only a handful of the audience probably noticed your errors and
it doesn’t matter when your superb, distinctive playing is this good.
Although Carthy’s brushed, down-tuned
guitar work was sublime, the overall first half of the concert was far less brilliant with Martin’s perfectionist streak
and a rather joyless semi-formal recital of obscure traditional songs seriously hampering proceedings. Thankfully things improved after the break with the second half opener, a melodic song originating from
Dorset being a turning point. After this highlight, Swarbrick and Carthy seemed much more engaged with their music with some
mesmerising guitar / violin interplay at times. This culminated in the old favourite Byker Hill followed by the absolute highlight,
a moving Swarb-penned instrumental My Heart’s In New South Wales which clearly meant a lot to its author who used to
live in Australia. More warmth followed this final song as the two old friends
embraced amidst a strong reception from the audience. The rather stuffy and sterile first half was almost forgotten now though
hopefully Martin and Dave won’t take so long to warm up next time…
A gig of two halves then and I don’t
think this was just the view of my party as I hid the chocolates under my jacket and headed home. After all, the person winning
the first prize in the raffle also chose a bottle of wine over the CD. I wonder if they regretted their decision come the
end of the evening as I did…
23.9.09
